James Kirkup is The Telegraph's Executive Editor (Politics). He was previously the Telegraph's Political Editor and has worked at Westminster since 2001.

Patrick Mercer: another disaster for Parliament

First, some declarations. I’ve known Patrick Mercer for several years. I’ve had lunch with him, I’ve gossiped with him, discussed politics, defence and history with him. The end of his political career today, a disaster of his own making, saddens me, and not just on a personal level.

The reason I know Mr Mercer is that I’m a political journalist, and have been for most of my career. I spend my working days in Parliament, and I know lots of MPs.

Maybe that has skewed my judgement, and maybe I’m not objective. But then, who is? A question for philosophers, not journalists.

Anyway, I know Parliament and I know MPs. I know that the public view of both is pretty poor these days: a significant number of voters think that “MP” is a synonym for “lying, fiddling, pocket-lining tax-leech”.

When did that belief begin? I suspect it’s been with us for as long as politicians have. But in our country and our age, this newspaper’s revelations about MPs’ expenses in 2009 is surely still the most important influence on public perceptions of MPs. The details revealed at the time remain shocking.

Yet that was four years ago, in another Parliament. Every member of the Commons has since been returned by their electors. Many of the current members were not in the House at the time of the expenses scandal.
Since 2009, a new set of rules has applied, overseen by an independent body. Those rules are remarkably hard to exploit. Indeed, if any member has yet managed to profit from them, their ingenuity has remained a secret.

Does this mean that the scandal is over, that MPs have cleaned up their act? No. There remain various legacy issues from the old order, many of them relating to properties bought on expenses. Some MPs also take their irritation at the administrative burdens of the new rules, giving the impression that they resent having to account for their use of public money to the taxpayers who provided it.

But for all those problems, things have actually got better. The sort of behaviour that used to be the norm for MPs is now the exception. Perhaps, just perhaps, the conditions were in place for a modest recovery in the reputation of MPs and Parliament. Perhaps, just perhaps, some voters might have started to think a little better of MPs. That was always unlikely. The Mercer story makes it less likely still.

Are there saints in the House? I don’t know any. Even the best MPs have their measure of vanity and self-regard, an essential admiration for themselves that drives them to make the sacrifices and jump through the hoops that are required to reach the green benches.

But is that so bad? How many of us are truly selfless? I’ve known doctors, nurses, aid workers, soldiers and various others whose work is nominally about putting the public good before their own advancement. None has been free of personal ambition or vanity; no human being is. But who cares? Surely we should regard the things people do as more important than their reasons for doing them?

I believe in politics. I believe in representative democracy. I believe it's only viable if the people have some sort of confidence in their representatives — more confidence than they have today.

I don’t, not for second, want more deference for politicians. I believe that full, unflinching and merciless journalistic examination is the only way we’ll ever arrive at a healthy relationship between politicians and the people. Only when voters know that their representatives are properly scrutinised can they believe that those representatives are worthy of the responsibilities they’ve been lent. And proper scrutiny will always leave casualties.

Not all MPs are scum. Many MPs work hard for their constituents, doing their job to the best of their ability and sometimes even do some good.

So, much as it saddens me say so, here’s the worst thing Mr Mercer has done: he’s given voters another reason to write off all MPs as being as weak and greedy as him.